Whoa. I just realized that I haven’t baked a bundt cake since April.
This has been one hell of a year, both personally with the Maxwell’s build out and opening, and for the country as a whole. This election cycle really has consumed me, chewed me up and spit me out, and just when I thought it would all finally be over, it seems like we’re in for even more struggle and strife.
While things may feel a little disheartening right now, life must go on, and getting back into the kitchen and revving up the ol’ stand mixer certainly helps me feel centered and whole again.
I’m so so thrilled that Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook chose pears as our inspiration for the #bundtbakers this month. Thank you so much Lauren! Not only do I absolutely love pears on their own, there’s also something especially cozy and satisfying about baking with fall fruit pear-ed (har har) with warm homey spices.
With Thanksgiving only a week away, a pear bundt cake is just what the doctor ordered.
I have a confession to make though.
I haven’t always liked pears.
My grandfather has always had several fruit and nut trees on his property, and when I was little I thought pears were absolutely disgusting. I don’t know if it was the grainy texture, or the thick sandy skin, or what, but to be perfectly honest I didn’t care for a lot of the bounty of grandpa’s garden.
I was truly a child of the 80’s, and a lot of my culinary influence during my formative years came from spending time in my grandmother’s kitchen. She is a product of her generation, and Grandma’s food philosophy came from the atomic-age desire for shiny, new, packaged convenience foods rather than the back-to-earth approach many of us prefer today. As a kid in Grandma’s kitchen, packaged food was celophane-wrapped, sterilized heaven to me, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Give me a box of doughnuts, a bag of chips, a can of soup, a bottle of soda, and a grilled cheese sandwich made with plastic-wrapped processed “cheese food”, bagged sliced white bread, and margarine from a tub.
Who wants to have to pick and wash fresh fruits and vegetables from outside with all the dirt and bees and bugs, when the fridge is stocked with Cool Whip and Velveeta that’s clean and delicious and ready to eat?
Not me.
That’s who.
I did like Grandpa’s strawberries and plums, but even the strawberries had to be scrubbed and sliced and covered in sugar before I deemed them edible.
Obviously my tastes have changed over the years, and as an adult I’ll take a ripe juicy pear, still warm from the sun, over a tub of chemically Cool Whip any day of the week.
As a kid, trips to my grandparents house filled me with excitement because I knew the cupboards were bursting with store-bought chips and cookies and doughnuts. These days I still get excited when I get to visit my grandparents, but now it’s because I know grandpa will load me up with sagging grocery bags filled with dirty bell peppers, lopsided butternut squash, fuzzy warm peaches, or sun-ripened tomatoes when I get ready to leave.
When I was planning my bundt for this month, I knew that I really wanted the pears to be the stars of the show. My first instinct was to chop or cube or grate them just like apples into a traditional spice cake for flavor and added moisture, but somehow that didn’t seem like it was “enough”. My pears deserved better than playing second fiddle to cinnamon.
Determined to leave the pears whole (or at least halved) inside the cake, I decided to poach them in a bourbon ginger syrup. They smelled like heaven in the poaching liquid and I couldn’t help myself from sneaking spoonfuls of batter from the pan before it went into the oven. I was congratulating myself on a job well done before the cake even started to rise, and I couldn’t wait to get it out of the oven and see the autumnal perfection I’d come up with.
Aaaaaaand…
It was an absolute disaster.
The pears soaked up too much moisture in the poaching liquid, releasing it back into the cake to create a jiggly bundt with the weirdest almost blubbery texture I’ve ever had the misfortune to put in my mouth. As the cake cooled it sagged and the cake separated from the pears and slumped into a wobbly mess on the plate.
So, back to the drawing board. I knew I’d need a thicker, denser batter, and I obviously needed to find a way to pull moisture out of the pears before baking them into the cake. With poaching out of the question, I decided to try dry roasting the pears so they’d be tender but slightly dried out before going into the batter. Thankfully, it worked out beautifully and I think the pears are almost as happy about it as I am.
You’ll want to use the smallest pears you can find for this recipe, because if they’re too big or tall they’ll take up too much room in the pan. They might cause the batter to run over in the oven, or could stick out the top of the cake and cause it to sit unevenly when plated. I also think that Bosc pears are the only variety firm and sturdy enough to stand up to being roasted, handled, and baked in this way without turning to mush or falling apart.
The bit of extra effort in roasting the pears and toasting the walnuts really pays off when you slice down into the cake to reveal a perfect cross-section of a whole pear (depending on where you slice).
And the flavor? Fuggitaboudit. Warm spices, tender roasted pears, crunchy toasted walnuts, buttery tender brown sugar spice cake, and a thick and tangy cream cheese glaze.
I mean. Come on.
This is basically THE perfect fall cake, and it would make an excellent addition to your Thanksgiving spread to boot. If you’re looking for even more fall inspiration and pear-y wonderfulness, make sure you scroll down past the recipe to see what the other #bundtbakers came up with this month!
Roasted Pear and Walnut Spice Cake
1 1/4 cups chopped walnuts
2 1/4 cups all-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoons cardamom (optional)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
Cream Cheese Glaze:
4 ounces (1/2 package) cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 to 4 tablespoons milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour a 10 to 12 cup bundt pan, refrigerate.
Peel pears, slice in half, and scoop out seeds with a melon baller or spoon. Place cut side up on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Flip and bake 15 minutes more. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Spread walnuts in an even layer on a small baking sheet and toast for 5 to 8 minutes, or until they smell toasty. Do not let them burn. Set aside to cool. Reserve 1/4 cup for topping the cake.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, & spices together in a bowl. Set aside. Mix vanilla into buttermilk and set aside.
In a the bowl of and electric mixer, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute or two and scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions.
Alternate additions of flour and buttermilk, mixing on low just until combined, and scraping the bowl between each addition. Start and end with flour so there are 3 additions of flour and 2 of buttermilk. Stir in 1 cup walnuts until evenly distributed.
Pour about 3/4 of the batter into the prepared pan, and tap the pan on the counter to remove air bubbles. Push pear halves into the batter, top side facing down into the bottom of the pan, arranging them so the cut halves face each other as a whole pear. Arrange pears so they’re evenly spaced around the pan. Spread remaining batter over the top, leaving at least half an inch of room for the cake to rise so it doesn’t overflow in the oven. It’s okay if the pears stick out of the batter a bit, as the cake should rise around them. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven, and cool in the pan for 30 minutes before turning it out onto a rack to cool completely.
While the cake cools, make the glaze.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until it’s fluffy and smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and 4 tablespoons of milk and blend until there are no lumps. If necessary, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition until the glaze reaches the desired drizzle-able consistency. It should be about the consistency of thick melted ice cream to drizzle correctly.
Place a tray under cake and cooling rack to catch any drips. Pour glaze over cake and let the glaze work its way down the side, tapping the tray on the counter if necessary. Top with toasted walnuts.
Well covered in an airtight container, this cake should keep at room temperature about 2 days, or longer in the fridge. Just make sure to serve it at room temperature if you refrigerate it.
The bundt bakers really outdid themselves this month, and all these perfect pear cakes have my mouth watering like crazy!
- Almond Pear Bread Pudding from Food Lust People Love
- Fresh Pear Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze from The Queen of Scones
- Honey and Walnut Pear Bundt Cake from Sew You Think You Can Cook
- London Fog & Pear Bundt Cake from All That’s Left Are The Crumbs
- Orange Pear Bundt Cake from Basic N Delicious
- Pear and Date Bundt Cake with Caramel Mascarpone Sauce from kidsandchic
- Pear and Hazelnut Bundt from Jane’s Adventures in Dinner
- Pear and Port Bundt Cake from Palatable Pasttime
- “Pear”fect Rum Raisin Cake from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
- Pear Pecan Coffee Bundt Cake from Patty’s Cake
- Pear Spiced Bundt Cake from I Love Bundt Cakes
- Pear Streusel Crunch Cake from Noshing with the Nolands
- Pumpkin Pear Bundt Cake from Making Miracles
- Roasted Pear & Walnut Spice Cake Bundt from Brooklyn Homemaker
- Salted Caramel Pear Bundt Cake from Tartacadabra
- Spiced Pear Bundt from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Wow!!! This is one of the most stunning cakes I’ve ever seen! I did not expect it to look like that on the inside — amazing!! Sounds delicious too!
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Thank you so so much!!! Coming from someone who consistently bakes up some of the most gorgeous cakes on the internet, I sincerely appreciate that!
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Wow you never cease to amaze me with your bundt cakes! Pretty awesome! You say you haven’t baked a bundt since April, well you could always start catching up now! Lol. That would be six more bundt cakes to make, in case you were wondering. Haha! But not all at once!
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Thank you so much!!!
Hopefully I can count my first attempt at this cake as one of those six! ;)
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That is a gorgeous bundt! Incredible that you left them whole – what a beautiful (and delicious) slice of cake!
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Thank you thank you thank you!
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Looks lovely with the pears in there. Glad you got the process worked out!
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Thank you so much!
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Roasted pear, now you have my attention but best of all is how jaw droppingly gorgeous this bundt is!!
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Thank you soooo much! I’m glad I was able to make it work!
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I am just so loving this – for me, pears MUST be in something, so a cake is perfect – and I love the walnuts. I could not figure out why I have fallen so far behind on my blog – think you hit it dead-on – this scary election was just too much!
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Thank you so much! I’m so happy with the way this cake came out, both the look and the flavor!
Here’s hoping we can get back into our kitchens and try to find some semblance of normalcy!
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Great job figuring out how to use the whole pears. I loved this post, it had me smiling and even laughing out loud. A perfect way to end my evening. Thanks.
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Thank you so much Wendy! That’s the best compliment I could ask for!
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Wow, this is such a stunning cake, Tux! You never seem to let me down with an original and inspirational recipe (and blog writing). Thank you!!
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Thank you Lara!
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I’m so glad you got back into the kitchen and baked up another stunning bundt. I never would have thought to leave the pears whole, but it is simply the most dramatic cake!
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Tux.
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Thank you so much! I wasn’t sure it would work out, but I’m glad I kept trying!
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OOooh, my…!! Simply PERFECT!! I love those pears inside. What a great idea!! Your photos are amazing!!! I was missing your bakings last months!!!! XOXO
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Thank you so much!!!
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I thought about poaching my pairs too, but changed my mind for the same reasons you mentioned. I love the idea of baking the pears whole in the cake, it’s kind of like a surprise inside cake. Lovely photos too.
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Thank you so much Felice!
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Oh how I’ve missed your gorgeous cakes! So glad you’re back and thank you for sharing some of your childhood memories. I’d give anything to go back and be in my grandma’s kitchen!
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Thank you so much Colleen! It’s always fun to talk about childhood memories and grandma’s house!
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